Not one to shave, the Feather-Legged Spider uses its extra-long tufts of leg hair to comb its silk web.

Thick legs are made to look all the bigger thanks to long, feathery hairs. Feather-Legged Spiders have a large abdomen with two prominent bumps on the upper half. These brown patterned spiders may look ferocious, but they actually lack venom glands and are, therefore, non-venomous, a true rarity in the spider world. (Almost every spider produces venom, but not every venom is poisonous to humans.)

The Feather-Legged Spider is a type of orb-weaver, creating fine webs that entangle prey. The webs are built flat and not far from the ground. A stabilimentum (zig-zag) may be visible in the web. They seem to prefer to hang head-down when collecting and feeding on prey. The silk of their web is not sticky, so its ensnaring ability comes from the way the web is built. Inside of a large, holey spiral of silk, the Feather-Legged Spider creates a willowy web with many smaller gaps. The tiny size of the gaps between lines in the web make it difficult for an insect to pull itself free once a leg or antenna falls through one. Movement tends to make the tangle worse by twisting more of the small gaps around the insect. Once the insect is stuck, the spider descends on its prey, crushing it using more lines of silk.

Basic Information

Common Name: Feather-Legged Spider

Scientific Name:Uloborus glomosus

Category: Spider

General Identification

Size (Adult; Length): 3mm to 10mm (0.12in to 0.39in)

Identifying Colors: brown; ivory; red, black

Additional Descriptors: feathery, bumpy, speckled, tufts

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom:Animalia

Phylum:Arthropoda

Class:Arachnida

Order:Araneae

Family:Uloboridae

Genus:Uloborus

Species:glomosus

Spider Anatomy (Typical)

1

Legs: Spiders have four pairs of legs and these are attached to the cephalothorax.

2

Pedipalps: Small appendages near the mouth used as taste and smell organs.

3

Cephalothorax: Contains eyes, head, mouthparts, and legs.

4

Abdomen: Contains various organs related to digestion, reproduction, and web-making.

5

Spinnerets: Used in the production of spider silk for fashioning webs or catching prey.

NOTE: Unlike insects, spiders have both an endoskeleton (internal) and exoskeleton (external).

Territorial Reach (A-to-Z)

Note: An insect's reach is not limited by lines drawn on a map and therefore species may appear in areas, regions and/or states beyond those listed below as they are driven by environmental factors (such as climate change), available food supplies and mating patterns. Grayed-out selections below indicate that the subject in question has not been reported in that particular territory. U.S. states and Canadian provinces / territories are clickable to their respective bug listings.

The map below showcases (in red) the states and territories of North America where the Feather-Legged Spider may be found (but is not limited to). This sort of data can be useful in seeing concentrations of a particular species over the continent as well as revealing possible migratory patterns over a species' given lifespan. Some species are naturally confined by environment, weather, mating habits, food resources and the like while others see widespread expansion across most, or all, of North America.